{"id":1584,"date":"2026-10-26T22:30:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T22:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/2026-ballon-dor-burna-boy-presents-socrates-award-to-bukayo-saka\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T22:30:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T22:30:48","slug":"2026-ballon-dor-burna-boy-presents-socrates-award-to-bukayo-saka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/2026-ballon-dor-burna-boy-presents-socrates-award-to-bukayo-saka\/","title":{"rendered":"2026: Ballon d\u2019Or: Burna Boy presents Socrates Award to Bukayo Saka"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"59.358199753391\">\n<p>Nigerian singer Burna Boy presented the 2026 Socrates Award to Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka at the Ballon d\u2019Or ceremony on Monday.\n<\/p>\n<p>Speaking before presenting the award, Burna Boy discussed his football academy in Nigeria, saying he started the initiative a few years ago to support football development in his home country.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomething I started a few years ago, just to support the football culture back home. Hopefully, inshallah, one day I\u2019ll come back here to see one of my people getting an award in Ballon d\u2019Or,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>The singer subsequently presented the award to Saka at the ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>The Socrates Award recognises footballers who use their influence and resources to support humanitarian causes and make a difference in their communities. It was established in 2022 by France Football in collaboration with Peace and Sport and is named after the late Brazilian footballer S\u00f3crates. <\/p>\n<div class=\"read-also\">\n<header>Related News<\/header>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Saka received the award for his charitable work with BigShoe, an organisation that provides medical assistance to children in need. His support has helped children access life-changing medical treatment, including surgery to restore sight.\n<\/p>\n<p>Previous recipients of the award include Senegalese forward Sadio Man\u00e9, Brazilian winger Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior and Spanish footballer Jenni Hermoso.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, the honour went to the Xana Foundation, established by Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique in memory of his daughter.\n                    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"14.852589641434\">\n<p> All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contact\">Contact: <a href=\"\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#abdfc3cececfc2dfc4d9ebdbdec5c8c3c5cc85c8c4c6\"> <span class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"11657974747578657e635161647f72797f763f727e7c\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/span> <\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Punch Newspapers &#8211; Latest News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nigerian singer Burna Boy presented the 2026 Socrates Award to Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka at the Ballon d\u2019Or ceremony on Monday. Speaking before presenting the award, Burna Boy discussed his&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}